Mass Society and Political Conflict: Toward a Reconstruction of Theory

Many recent studies in economics have uncovered the economic and socio-economic factors that are most related to differences among nations in citizens' self-reported levels of well-being (SWB). However, these cross-country studies have generally not taken into account the fact that around the SWB national average, a considerable spread of scores exists within nations. In an extreme case, a country may be in the midst of a major social upheaval, with a large group of dispossessed and disadvantaged individuals, yet this fact is completely hidden by the arithmetical average. Using cross-country data with diverse economic and socio-economic characteristics and the latest available dataset on well-being, we uncover the factors that appear to be the most highly correlated with the inequality of well-being within nations. We find the inequalities in individual incomes and quality of health, and the level of institutional qualities to be most important in explaining the inequalities of well-being.     

On the Role of Outsiders in Technical Development

In this paper, it is argued that outsiders play an important role in the dynamics of technical change and that, for this reason, outsider involvement is also an important entry if one wants to 'improve' or democratize technical development. Outsiders are defined as people not involved in technical development and not sharing the rules that guide the design and development of a technology. The totality of these rules makes up the technological regime of a technology. Technological regimes are characterized by certain trajectories of technical development. The focus in this paper is on outsiders who may trigger (radical) technical change that transform current technological regimes. Three different types of such outsiders are distinguished and their role in technical development is discussed: professional scientists and engineers, outsider firms and societal pressure groups.     

The Italian theories of progressive taxation∗

In this paper I evaluate the logical consistency of Patinkin's claim that involuntary unemployment can result from slow speed of adjustment. I argue that Patinkin's argument is flawed because of an unjustified breach of continuity in the trade technology assumption between the microeconomic and the macroeconomic parts of Money, Interest, and Prices. Finally, I claim that the issue of flexibility versus rigidity should be linked to the trade technology assumption. As soon as a centralized trade technology is assumed, flexibility automatically comes in.     

“What’s the Harm in Being Unethical? These Strangers are Rich Anyway!” Exploring Underlying Factors of Double Standards

Previous studies show evidence of double standards in terms of individuals being more tolerant of questionable consumer practices than of similar business practices. However, whether these double standards are necessarily due to the fact that one party is a business company while the other is a consumer was not addressed. The results of our two experimental studies, conducted among 277 (Study 1) and 264 (Study 2) participants from a Western European country by means of an anonymous self-administered online survey, demonstrate that the respondents were not only harsher in their judgments of unethical business (vs. consumer) behavior, but also harsher in their judgments of unethical behavior by prosperous (vs. non-prosperous) consumers and prosperous (vs. non-prosperous) business companies (Study 1). Further, they were also less tolerant of unethical behavior by consumers (vs. one’s best friend) and business companies with which they have a less than good (vs. a good) relationship (Study 2). These results indicate that double standards are due to differences in perceived wealth between subjects and in the individual’s relationship with subjects. These two factors imply that double standards are not strictly reserved to consumer–business relations, but might also be used in business–business and consumer–consumer relations. Further, these results indicate that companies need to be aware of the fact that good financial figures may backfire as they might lead individuals to be more critical of a company’s deceptive practices. Moreover, these findings point to the importance of businesses investing resources—and to keep investing resources—in developing a good relationship with stakeholders as these good relationships lead to stakeholders being less prone to make moral condemnations.     

Human resource management–well‐being–performance research revisited: Past,present, and future

The authors provide an up‐to‐date theoretically based qualitative review of research dealing with the relationship between HRM, employee well‐being, and individual/organisational performance (HRM‐WB‐IOP research). The review is based on a systematic critical analysis of all HRM‐WB‐IOP studies (N = 46) published in 13 core HRM and management journals in the 2000 to 2018 period. The authors first identify different theoretical models of the HRM‐WB‐IOP relationship, which they then use to map research in the area. The results show that mutual gains conceptualisations play a dominant role in extant HRM‐WB‐IOP research, at the expense of alternative conflicting outcomes and mutual losses models, which are also shown to receive very limited empirical support across the 46 studies. As part of this mapping exercise, the authors identify important knowledge gaps in the area and conclude by setting out a number of key recommendations for future research to address these gaps.     

民营企业的二次创业与积累文化资本

作为中国经济发展的后起之秀,经过20多年的发展,民营企业取得了第一次创业的成功,民营经济也已占据国民生产总值六成以上。随着中国加入WTO,经济全球化、国际化速度的加快,市场竞争变得尤为激烈。因此,如何赢得二次创业成为民营企业迫在眉睫的任务。     

GM and corporate responsibility

Only by distinguishing corporate, moral, social and legal responsibility can GM know how to weigh and respond to its various responsibilities. Corporate responsibility stems from the ends for which the corporation is formed. In addition the corporation is responsible for meeting the moral demands that come from the moral law. The corporation is responsible for meeting legitimate social demands proposed by society. If society uses the law to express its demands, the demands yield legal responsibilities. Those demands that are social but neither moral nor legal may not be legitimate demands that GM must respond to at all. Richard T. De George, University Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at the University of Kansas, former President of the Metaphysical Society of America, and Vice President of the International Federation of Philosophical Societies, is the author of Business Ethics and contributing co-editor of Ethics, Free Enterprise and Public Policy.